Chapter Fourteen: Broken Loose

"Something's wrong, where are all of the sentries?" Spyro said to himself as he crested over the sand dunes around Draikor's palace. The sand among the top of the dry sand dunes kicked up into Spyro's eyes as he squinted then nearly completely shut while using his wings for cover as he pushed on cautiously into Draikor's lair.

"I knew you would return at long last," Draikor boomed as Spyro entered the throne room. "You came alone once more? Brave but stupid, tell me something, did Cynder appreciate the work I done to you before your departure?"

"Not as much as what I'm going to do to you," Spyro said as he approached the center of the massive room. "Show yourself you coward, I'm here, just you and me!"

"Not quite young pest…," Ripto said; a voice unfamiliar to Spyro as he stood in confusion in the middle of the room. "You'll have to go through me first." Suddenly, the sorcerer appeared from the shadows, holding his scepter with pride as he faced Spyro's front.

"You must be Ripto, the Riptoc responsible for his family's unfortunate outcome." Spyro said in a serious tone as Ripto's face turned into an expression of anger.

"Hold your tongue dragon; do not speak of my family unless told to do so!" Ripto said as he slammed the bottom of his scepter into the floor. Suddenly, the pillars among the room began to sink into the floor, creating an arena-like area as Spyro looked around the room in confusion to what was going on.

"Kill him Ripto, and I will see through that your family will be with you." Draikor beckoned as Ripto nodded his head.

"Your family, what is does he mean?" Spyro said as the sorcerer drew near the darkened purple dragon.

"He vows to return my family from the dead,' Ripto said as he swung his cape from his sides to his back. "Killing you will give me a second chance to make things right with them."

"By bringing them back with demons," Spyro said as Ripto withdrew a small, clear orb embraced by two overlapping gold rings from a small satchel from his left side with his left hand. "They won't be the same once they are brought back, they'll just be slaves to Draikor!"

"Shut up, I've heard enough from you, now you die!" Ripto said as the clear orb began to glow a crimson red. As the orb began to glow more brilliant by the second, the sorcerer slammed the small object into the crystal among his scepter, making it glow the same color as the orb as he squared up with Spyro.

"Come on, think this through Ripto, you know I'm right!" Spyro yelled as Draikor laughed hysterically behind Ripto as he soon appeared, climbing onto his great throne chair to watch the fight which was about to unfold soon.

"Are you going to listen to him, the one who is going to try and kill you to get to me, your one hope to see your family once more," Draikor said, trying to edge Ripto onward to kill Spyro. "Now listen to me, kill that pathetic whelping!"

"Ripto think, would your wife have wanted you to-" Spyro was cut short of his sentence as Ripto unleashed a powerful blast of fire which hit the purple dragon square in the chest. The intense heat brought Spyro to his knees as he managed to use his earth element to form a protective sphere of hardened rock around his body. Ripto then ceased from his attack as Spyro broke from his form.

"Do not bring up my family anymore, now come on and fight!" Ripto yelled as he withdrew another orb from his satchel which began to glow a blinding electric yellow.

"Get ready, they're almost here," Cynder said as she stood among the Dragon Study. "They've got to be almost here."

'Why are you so eager to go off and fight them, it's bad enough that they are eating our own, why would you risk your own hide?" Ember asked as Cynder stood among the balcony, patiently waiting for the battle to begin.

"The sooner we capture the Guardians, or at least hold them off the better," Cynder said as she closed the glass doors leading to the balcony. "So the sooner we fight off the Fallen will mean the sooner this nightmare will be over. Also, who all knows what other dangers lay in store for us." Just as Cynder finished her sentence, an Earth Missile attack shot through and broke both of the glass doors leading to the balcony with no effort at all. Broken glass, wood splinters, and chunks of rock pelted Cynder's hide as she was blown away from the impact into Cyril's massive bookcase. The bookcase began to tumble over as Flame shot up from his resting position to Cynder's aid.

"Cynder, watch out!" Flame ordered as he caught the bookcase and opened his wings before the bookcase could crush Cynder, or the books fell onto the fragile eggs.

"I got this Flame, Ember; get the eggs out of the way." Cynder said as she helped Flame hold up the bookcase. Ember frantically wrapped both of the eggs in a silk blanket while moving them as fast as she could to allow Flame and Cynder move out from under the bookcase, allowing it to crash to the floor.

"Cynder, come and meet your fate!" Terrador boomed as Cynder regained her composure, knowing full well that Terrador was the one who attacked her to begin with.

"I'll keep him busy, you help Ember find a place to hide the eggs and take down Volteer and Cyril." Cynder ordered as she brushed the broken glass and wood splinters from her body. She could feel a small, hair-size cut below her left eye sting like no other as she charged out of the Dragon Study, tackling Terrador as the two free-fell down towards the city streets.

"Don't kill…" Terrador thought as Cynder kept a firm grip on his wrists as she threw him onto the top of a building roof.

"Die you pure soul creature!" Volteer yelled from behind Cynder as he released a powerful current of electricity at Cynder. Just before the impact, Cynder watched a silhouette of a dragon leap in front of the current, taking the full impact to the chest as the body fell limp to the ground. The figure then began to struggle to stand as Cynder saw that the dragon was Flame.

"Flame, are you ok!?" Cynder asked as the orange dragon's legs struggled to support his aching muscles.

"I'm f-f-fine… j-j-just need a minute to rest." Flame said as his front legs nearly gave out from under him again. "Ember is already t-t-taking on Cyril… you keep after Terrador, Volteer is mine."

Cynder kept her eyes locked with Terrador's as she asked, "Are you sure you can go through with this, your heart won't take another hit like that from Volteer." Cynder said as she knew Flame's body no doubt hurt from the large, painful muscle spasm which Volteer had inflicted on the young dragon's body.

"I'm sure, the first choke point at the city gates has already been breached, it won't be long until the Fallen push through into the middle of the city where our vital functions rest," Flame said as he squared up with Volteer as he could feel Cynder's presence behind him, closing the gap between the two as she to also squared up with Terrador. "Hunter is missing from the emergency room."

"He'll be ok; Prowlus will make sure of it, are you ready?" Cynder said as Terrador leaped towards her.

"Yeah… bring it on," Flame yelled as Volteer dove towards him. "Give me your hand!" Flame grabbed Cynder's outstretched hand as he whipped her around into Volteer's jaw. Teeth clearly broke among impact in Volteer's mouth as Cynder made sure her foot landed solidly into Volteer's jaw. Flame then continued to whip Cynder around towards Terrador until the last second. As he let go, Cynder stretched out her claws and tackled the leader Guardian to the ground.

"Where am I?" Hunter sputtered as he slowly opened his eyes, soon figuring out that he was among the roof of the Dragon Study.

"You are a Cheetah warrior of leadership are you not?" Arachnus asked as he stood among the edge of the dome roof. "You have something that belongs to me."

"I can't get it off… it won't release me." Hunter sputtered as he felt his strength slip back into his body.

"You are not of arachnid blood which has caused you to be poisoned by the device," Arachnus said as he drew his sword. "No need to fear though about the device releasing you though, by the time I'm done feasting on you, there will only be a splotch of blood left behind.

"Why didn't you leave me unarmed, or better yet, just kill me at the infirmary?" Hunter asked as he drew his sword from the black, ragged sheath which held it firmly.

"I don't like sharing my meals," Arachnus stated as he removed his cape, showing his severely scarred body. "I enjoy seeing my prey squirm for their dear, unimportant life. Now… show me what you got Avalarian!" The Fallen leader leaped towards Hunter as the Cheetah warrior fired a web line towards Arachnus.

The Fallen leader caught the web line in mid-flight and wrapped it around his hand as he said, "I've had plenty of time to study your tactics 'Hunter', the more use of the device means the more venom which will be pumped into your bloodstream." The Fallen warrior then whipped the Cheetah warrior off of the building.

"Re-think strategy, keep him guessing." Hunter thought as he fired another web line towards the edge of the roof to catch his fall, using the momentum from the arc of his fall and weight to send him up and around and onto the roof again with Arachnus.

"Impressive, you keep on your target until the very end, you have indeed earned your name Hunter," Arachnus complimented as he stood his ground against Hunter's swift sword attacks until the two locked swords with one another. "But the venom has made you weak and has slowed you, how long do you expect to survive against me?"

"Long enough to finish you, I suppose!" Hunter yelled between clinched teeth as he broke the standoff and leaped back from Arachnus to catch his breath, regaining his composure slowly.

"I really hate to tell you, but I can see your every move from a mile away," Arachnus said as Hunter's eyes popped open with disbelief. "My training is learned through arachnid blood, no other organism can learn its tactics. Every move you make I can see coming just by your own body anatomy, your muscles make this obvious, just like if I was reading your mind."

"Huh, this really puts me in a bind." Hunter thought as he tried to keep his focus on the task at hand without blacking out again.

"Look at the puny Cheetah warrior, he thinks he can kill us both brother." Crush said to gulp as the two laughed hysterically.

"I hope his bones are stronger than his spirit, otherwise I'll have no fun crushing his skull!" Gulp said as Prowlus gripped his crossbow firmly.

"Size does not matter you dull-minded idiots, it is skill which counts," Prowlus said as he leaned his crossbow up next to a nearby wooden wagon and placed throwing knives between each of his fingers in both hands. "Now which of you wants to prove me wrong?"

The black tinted blue skin of Crush gave away an aura of disgust and pride as the two legged behemoth stood before the Cheetah warrior. The bloodshot blue eyes focused on Prowlus as he bared his gruesome, crooked teeth. His two yellow, crooked horns and tiny wings gave Prowlus the impression that Crush was once a dragon as Prowlus watched the abomination roar up towards the skies. The super brute then grabbed a large bundle of used wooden planks with crooked nails sticking out from them and placed them in his right hand, wielding them as a formidable club.

"There won't be enough left of you to bury when I'm done with you." Gulp said as he approached Prowlus as well. His green and black tinted skin seemed to seep from his yellow chest scales as Prowlus tried to focus on both monstrosities. Gulp's curved horns and body color left Prowlus to believe that the deformed beast was once a Lizard warrior of some sort as the two charged at Prowlus recklessly.

"Give it up Ember; you are outmatched by my element!" Cyril taunted as he fired an Ice Missile at Ember who just barely managed to melt the projectile with her fire breath.

"I'm taking you down!" Ember yelled as she rammed her head into Cyril's chin, completely catching him off guard as Cyril's nerves along his neck popped like knuckles, causing him to fall into a wagon full of chains, ropes, and locks. Ember landed among the head and began to restrain the unconscious Cyril's wings, tail, and limbs with chains to keep him restrained until further notice.

"There, that should keep you held down for a minute or two…," Ember doubted as she looked up and saw Cynder and Flame fighting off Volteer and Terrador in the red tinted sky. "One down, only Volteer and Terrador left to take down now." Ember then flew up to help her husband and best friend.